My Five #208

Five things worth sharing from the last week or so, brought to you by a different member of the Browser Media team every Friday.

This week’s My Five is by Lisa.

1. Admiral Facebook

It’s no secret that the posts you like and share on social media reveal a lot about your personality traits and characteristics. According to Admiral car insurance, your online behaviour can also determine whether or not you are a safe driver.

The company wanted to offer young motorists a “first car quote” via an app that snooped through their Facebook profiles and made an analysis about their level of risk on the road. The app would use algorithms to judge a user’s writing style, group memberships, and third party applications to generate their insurance quote.

Those who frequently use exclamation marks and phrases such as “always” or “never” rather than “maybe” would be labelled as overconfident and competitive – boy racers. In contrast, those who write in short, concise sentences, use lists, and arrange to meet friends at an exact time and place, rather than just “tonight”, would be identified as conscientious and well-organised – safe drivers.

Facebook hit back claiming that the scheme breached its privacy rules, and in an embarrassing turn of events, the insurance firm pulled the product less than two hours before it was due to officially launch on Wednesday.

2. HB TV

Eighty years ago, at 3pm on 2 November 1936 to be precise, BBC television officially began.

Of course, back then, it wasn’t TV as we know it today. There was no Bake Off, no soaps, and no Z-list celebrity shows.It all started with BBC’s chairman of the time, giving a speech that introduced a new word to those watching: “viewers”, but no recording of this exists because back then, TV was live and died immediately on air.

There was just one channel, programmes were only broadcast for two hours a day – at 3pm and at 9pm, except on Sundays – and viewer numbers were so low that the first programmes would receive a zero rating in today’s viewing calculations.

How things have changed!

3. Fake ads

Yet another twist in the controversial and bitterly contested U.S presidential campaign, a series of fake ads recently started showing on Twitter, prompting Democrat supporters to text their vote for Clinton using a unique phone code.

The ads had been designed to look as if they came from the official Clinton campaign, carrying captions like “Vote from Home” and “Avoid the Line,” alongside a small message saying they had been paid for by the Clinton campaign.

Of course it is not possible to vote by text, which suggests the purpose of the fake ads was to suppress Democratic turnout by tricking people into thinking they had already voted.

4. Funny money

We’ve just about got over the new fiver, and now come reactions of outrage and bewilderment at the new design for the pound coin, set to enter circulation March 2017.

The shiny new 12-sided coin will replace the current one, which has been in use for three decades. It has been created using “cutting-edge” technology making it harder to counterfeit.

@SkyNews Why the hell do they have to mess about. This will cost businesses millions in modification costs. No need for it!! #sillyidea — Grumpy Stan. (@grumpyoldstan) October 31, 2016